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My boyfriend leaned over my shoulder just as I opened this post and begged me to make the cake for a weekend treat. Never one to say no to a complicated, way-too-involved baking project I readily agreed. But on Saturday morning, just as we headed out the door to the supermarket he decided he wanted a chocolate on chocolate layer cake, not a vanilla cake. I clicked through a few of my favourite blogs but came up blank: everything required half a dozen eggs or three pans. Where was my standard issue chocolate layer cake?! Not having hours to pour over and compare dozens of recipes like I usually do, I logged on to the Epicurious app and chose the first cake that looked like a safe bet. It looked moist and chocolatey, didn’t require separating eggs and it has a whopping 1,468 (overwhelmingly positive!) reviews. I guess it goes to show that sometimes the best decisions are the ones made in an instant, because this cake lived up to all our expectations. Granted, it’s so big that we’ll be eating it around the clock for the next week. But still, that’s hardly a sacrifice given that it’s super delicious and it made for a very fun way to spend a Saturday.

2. Prepare your pans. I like to line the bottom of the pans with baking paper. I then coat the sides with softened butter, drop a couple of table spoons of sugar or almond meal into the pans and shake it around until the sides are fully covered. This forms a barrier between the cake and the pan and makes the sides of the cake sweet and slightly crunchy (yum!). You can also line the bottom and sides of the pans with baking paper if you prefer.

3. Chop the chocolate for the cake up and pour the hot coffee over it. Leave the mixture to stand for a few minutes, or until the chocolate has melted. Stir until smooth.

4. In a large bowl sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking power and salt. Add the sugar and stir together.

5. In another bowl, beat the eggs until thickened slightly and pale. I did this by hand, which took about 6 minutes, but you could also use a stand mixer or a hand mixer.

6. Slowly until the oil, buttermilk, vanilla extract and coffee/chocolate mixture to the eggs. Mix gently until combined.

7. Add the sugar and flour mixture to the eggs and beat until well combined and smooth.

8. Divide the mixture between the two pans. They will be about 3/4 full but don’t worry – the mixture doesn’t rise too much.

9. Place into the oven and bake until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the cake. For me this took 1 hour but start checking at 55 minutes and note that it may take up to 1 hour and 10 minutes.

10. Remove the cakes from the oven and leave to cool in the pans for 10 – 15 minutes before turning out to cool.

11. While the cakes are cooling, get started with the ganache. Pour the honey and cream into a medium sized saucepan and bring to a gentle boil over medium heat. When the mixture has started to bubble, remove from the heat and pour in the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth. Add the butter and stir until the butter has melted and is mixed evenly through the ganache. Leave the ganache to cool. I made this cake on a hot and humid day so I put it in the fridge to firm up.

12. Put the first cake on your serving plate and spread ganache over the top. Don’t be skimpy but don’t be greedy either. Pop the next cake on top and spread the top and sides with a thin layer of ganache. Put in the cake to cool slightly (about half an hour). This is called a crumb layer – it means that when you put the final layer of ganache on the cake it will look silky, smooth and crumb-free! Pull the cake out of the fridge and spread over a thick layer of ganache. Now you’re ready to go!

Notes

I made this cake by hand, with an old-fashioned wooden spoon and mixing bowl. For some completely irrational reason I just can’t bring myself to use a mixer but in this case it would have been for the best – I ended up with slightly lumpy batter and a few flecks of flour in the finished cake. This did not at all detract from the finished cake but it looked a bit odd.

The original recipe called for 3 cups of sugar. I cut this down to 2 1/2 cups and it would probably be fine with even a little bit less.

The ganache recipe had 2 tbsp corn syrup and 2 tbsp sugar. Corn syrup is hard to get in Aus so I used honey. I’m sure golden syrup would be fine too. It was plenty sweet without the sugar and with the smaller amount of honey.

My boyfriend requested sprinkles so that’s what we had! I cut out a piece of baking paper slightly smaller than the cake and gently placed it on the iced cake. I sprinkled the 100s and 1000s around the paper to form a border and then gently removed the paper.